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Friday, October 5, 2012

90's Nickelodeon Shows: Classic or Overrated?

When Kevin and I decided to do a whole tribute to Nickelodeon, we knew that
it was going to be a lot of work. However, it wasn't going to be hard for us
because we LOVED Nickelodeon growing up. Everyday, whether it would be weekday
afternoons after school or on Saturday night, we would tune in and see our
favorite shows like Doug, Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, etc. So when working
on every single article discussing and giving a small retrospect on all these
shows, there were so many things that I had learned along the way. For example:
I didn't know that there was another anthology series before Are You Afraid
of the Dark? I didn't know that Jim Jinkens, the creator of Doug,
worked on pre-school Nickleodeon shows of the 80's. I never heard of shows such
as America Goes Bananaz, Livewire, Standby: Lights, Camera, Action!! and Out of
Control. I didn't know that Salute Your Shorts was based on a book. It was such
a blast not only learning about interesting facts about the shows you grew up
with, but sharing it with people who feel the same nostalgic connection of these
shows. For that, I must tell you: thank you.

But there was something else that I learned over the last 6 months. After
posting up a review, I would do research on what people nowadays think of the
90's Nickelodeon. What I found were pictures such as this:

This

This

This

and this

Also, I can't even tell you how many "I miss
90's Nickelodeon shows" tributes I've seen on YouTube. Look it up, there's
so many of them!

Not to mention all the articles at RetroJunk, blogs, and other
websites that seem to praise the 90's Nickelodeon shows and saying that the
shows from the 2000's up to today are complete garbage and that kids today don't
know what they're missing. However, there was one comment from someone that made
me see something I haven't even though of.

"The reason why you praise the 90's Nickelodeon shows is because you grew up
with them. When you're saying that today's shows are terrible because they're
not the same shows you watched as a kid, you have to understand that you are not
a kid anymore. Today's kids are completely different compared to kids from 10 or
20 years ago. Kids are surrounded by different media, they're raised
differently, and their tastes of shows are different. If you were a kid in the
90's, I'm sure you wouldn't like it if they didn't show programs like Hey
Arnold or Rugrats and instead aired programs such as Facts of
Life, Charlie's Angels, or The Cosby Show. You didn't care for
your parents' show then and the kids of today don't care about your shows now."

You know what? The person who wrote this comment made a really good point. As
you recall from my review of Welcome Freshmen/Fifteen, I had mentioned
that the people who grew up with Nickelodeon from the 80's hated the 90's
Nickelodeon shows because most of their favorite shows were gone and were
replaced by others. But you don't see people doing "I miss 80's Nick" videos
with shows such as Pinwheel, Livewire, The Third Eye, America Goes Bananaz,
Today's Special, etc. Now it's gone full circle with people who grew up
with Nickelodeon from the 90's saying they hated the 00's Nickelodeon because
most of their favorite shows are gone and were replace by others.

I mean, seriously? It seems that the people who have created these videos and
had written these articles has most likely haven't seen these shows in years.
Now I'm not talking about when The 90's Are All That debuted last year,
no! I'm talking about looking at now outdated websites gushing about how the
90's Nickelodeon shows were the best ever giving out detail in why it was so
good and the new shows are crap. A few years ago, I would have been in that
group. I would have fought to the death saying that shows of today are garbage
and the older shows were the best. But maybe now is not the case anymore. Maybe
my rose colored glasses were on for so many years that I haven't admited the
fact that many of the shows that I saw as a kid have not held up at all. Is this
true? Well, sit back and relax as we talk about the pros and cons of 90's
Nickelodeon shows. Here we go.

Pros

When said that the 90's was the most important year for Nickelodeon, I
completely agree. As you know, back in the 80's, the majority of their programs
were acquired from other networks and even countries such as Canada and Great
Britain. While there were original shows exclusively from Nickelodeon such as
Pinwheel, Popclips, Livewire, America Goes Bananaz, Out of Control, all
the game shows, Nick Rocks, and Hey Dude, all of the kids'
shows and cartoons were from other sources such as Danger Mouse, Count
Duckula, Banana Man, The Adventures of the Little Prince, David the Gnome,
etc. Not to mention You Can't Do That on Television, which put
Nickelodeon on the map, was a Canadian sketch comedy show.

When the 90's came, Nickelodeon had at that point created its own identity.
Nickelodeon Studios was open in 1990, they were the #1 kids' network, and now
they could animate and create their own shows. As I've mentioned before, 1991
was the most important year of Nickelodeon. Shows like Doug, Rugrats, Ren
and Stimpy, What Would You Do?, Clarissa Explains it All, and Are You
Afraid of the Dark were debuted. Almost all of those shows were innovated
and groundbreaking when they first came out. Ren and Stimpy showed us
that cartoons can have adult humor and paved the way for shows such as
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Cow and Chicken, Rocko's Modern Life, South Park,
Beavis and Butthead, and Adventure Time. Rugrats had an
interesting European animation and had created a show that both kids and adults
could like. The kids got into the characters and their perspective of the adults
while the adults loved the modern pop culture jokes. Clarissa Explains it
All was one of the first teen shows that starred a female and had shown us
a view of what a typical teenage girl goes through.

Not to mention that the 90's was a huge revival and gave a modern spin to
Hanna Barbera, Disney, and Warner Bros. cartoons such as Tiny Toon
Adventures, Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, Talespin, 2 Stupid Dogs, Pirates of the
Dark Water, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Swat Kats, and
Freakazoid. Also there were fantastic comic book animated series such
as Batman, Superman, X-Men, and Spiderman. So you see, today's
shows such as Phineas and Ferb, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, The Regular
Show, and Young Justice wouldn't have been possible without the
groundbreaking work that the animators from the 90's could do. In a time in
which cartoons were nothing more than 30 minute commercials hyping up the latest
toy, the 90's set the standard of what a cartoon could do.

Now let's talk about the live action shows. As you've been noticing from the
tribute, no two teen series were the same. Each one of them were different and
unique. Clarissa Explains it All was not like The Adventures of
Pete and Pete. My Brother and Me was not like The Mystery
Files of Shelby Woo. Are You Afraid of the Dark? was not like
Salute Your Shorts. Each show had its own identity, setting, and
characters to set it apart from the other shows. This is what today's teen shows
are missing: they are all one and the same. It's about a group of teenagers who
either go to school or at home or just hang out and they do pretty much nothing.
The characters are pretty stupid and cliche, there's no plot, and everything
just seems unrealistic. I feel like I'm seeing the same show over and over when
I change the channel and I see iCarly, Victorious, Austin and Ally, Hannah
Montana, The Wizards in Waverly Place, and Big Time Rush. There is
absolutely no variety in any of these shows. It's like what D.J. McHale said in
our interview with him "I can't tell the difference between the shows on Nick
and Disney. I like to call it Disneolodeon". I completely agree.

Another thing that Nickelodeon in the 90's did well were the special events.
I mean, don't tell me you didn't want to be in the Nickelodeon Super Toy Run
when you were a kid. I mean, you had 5 minutes to get any toy you wanted and you
didn't have to pay for it? Yes please! I want to get a Super Nintendo and a Sega
Genesis! Sign me up!

Overall, the 90's were indeed a great decade for Nickelodeon. That can never
be debated. It was truly a privilege if you were a kid in the 90's.

Now, uncover your eyes and take off your nostalgic rose colored glasses. Here
is the major con! While it may be one, it's a really important one.

Cons

The majority of the shows on Nickelodeon have not held up well at all,
especially the teen shows. Welcome Freshmen and Fifteen were
blantant ripoffs of Saved by the Bell and Degrassi.My
Brother and Me and Space Cases are extremely corny and almost
unwatchable, Roundhouse was an awful excuse for a improv show having
terrible jokes, the majority of the game shows have poorly aged due to their
crappy prizes, uncreativity, goofy hosts, cinematography, and idiotic
contestants, Cousin Skeeter and 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd
were unbelievably bland and boring, and shows such as The Secret World
of Alex Mack and The Journey of Allen Strange fell short of what
could have been a great show. More than half of the shows Kevin and I reviewed
were not recommended to check out, so why do people still talk great about them?
Because I think that the people who praise them have not seen them lately.
They're so protected of their childhoods that they wish to not see them again
due to them watching it as a kid gave them a warm feeling inside. For this
reason, people are more than willing to post that the 90's Nickelodeon shows
were the best. News flash: more than half of them are not!

I just feel that many of the 20 and 30-year-olds are constantly saying that
their childhoods are awesome and to tell you the truth, I'm already getting
burned out on it. The reason that our childhoods were great was not only because
there were great shows to see, but because our lives were simpler and filled
with less responsibility. When we see shows and movies today that are different
from the ones we grew up with or being remade, we get angry because we had seen
"better" shows when we were kids or fear that they'll change the original source
material that we grew up with up. But mostly, we don't want to admit the
complete honest truth: we're getting old!

Similar to when the baby boomers were complaining that there were no good
quality programs in the 80's compared to the 50's, we are complaining that there
are no good quality programs today compared to the 80's and 90's. Well, guess
what? The majority of our favorite shows are out on DVD or online. Go watch
those if you want to get your nostalgic fix. Problem solved!

Also, last time I checked, there are some great shows on TV right now. If you
want to watch a great animated show, watch Adventure Time, Regular Show,
Gravity Falls, Phineas and Ferb, Young Justice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Legend of Korra, and so much more. Not to mention funny sitcoms and TV
series like Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory,
Mike and Molly, Girls, Two Broke Girls, 30 Rock, and more. Not to mention
the adult animated shows like Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show,
Robot Chicken, Aqua Union Patrol Squad, and so much more. There are so many
great shows today: you just have to be open minded and look around. You'll find
a gem that will be just as treasured as some of the shows you grew up with. There are even some Nickelodeon shows from the 2000's that aren't bad. In fact, there are some really good ones!

In concluding this article, I do agree that the 90's were a huge important
milestone for Nickelodeon and had a great run with their shows. It was truly the
"golden era" for the #1 kids' network. But that was then and this is now. For
today's standards, most of the shows have aged poorly and not as good as it once
was. It's 2012. Time to look ahead, not look back. You can do so from time to
time, but don't stay there. You won't get very far in your life doing so.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we go into the year 2000 with Double Dare 2000.

Also, it's time to return to the Tim Burton tribute with
the 1988 classic Beetlejuice.

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About Me

Old School Lane was created by two nerdy best friends Patricia and Kevin on December 21, 2011. They talk about classic to modern adapations of movies, TV shows, video games, and everything else in between. This blog may be small for now, but it will grow into something special. We hope you're there when that happens.